Slang in the Dos Passos Oeuvre

The fictional works of Dos Passos present a plethora of American slang. Street talk is an essential components of his most popular masterworks: Manhattan Transfer, U.S.A., and Three Soldiers. Just off the top of my head, I can think of a couple expressions from his books. “Hell of a note” was evidently a conversational hallmark in certain circles in the 1930s. Also, “Before the whole thing goes belly up” is something I remember well from U.S.A. I suspect that my grandfather was surrounded and saturated by slang during his WWI service.

This recent article admirably explores the meaning of “crib” as “house” from Shakespeare to Dos Passos to MTV. In the world of Dos Passos’s The 42nd Parallel, “crib” means “cheap brothel.”

Dos Passos had a keen ear for slang and all facets of common speech. One need look no further than Shakespeare–or for a contemporary example, David Mamet–to find examples of slang that, with a clever pen, becomes poetry.

Events

The 2018 John Dos Passos Society Conference will be June 20-22 at the Geographical Society of Lisbon. Please send an English-language abstract of 250-300 words and a brief CV to both Aaron Shaheen and Mário Avelar at aaron-shaheen@utc.edu and mario.carlos.avelar@gmail.com respectively by February 9, 2018. Graduate students must submit a full paper by February 28th in order to be considered for supplemental travel funds. Make note of any A/V requests in your abstract. The conference will be exclusively in English.

Artwork

Quotes

“About style—I think that reading people in order to get ‘style’ from them is rather soft-headed. Your style is like the color of your hair or the cut of your pants—half accident, half act of God—to take thought to change or improve it results usually in rank affectation.”